1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a foam used in a print cartridge and a method of forming the same. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to a deodorizing, antibacterial, and disinfectant foam including 0.1-5.0 wt % of silver nanoparticles, based on the total weight of the foam, and a method of forming the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an inkjet printer is a device that dispenses picoliter-scale droplets of ink onto a paper using a thermal transfer method to create a text or an image. To dispense picoliter-scale droplets of ink, a head of an inkjet print cartridge is required to be minutely operated. Meanwhile, ink in an ink storage case of the cartridge is supplied to the head. Such a cartridge is fabricated in such a structure that supplies an appropriate volume of ink to the head, prevents a leakage of ink, and easily creates ink droplets.
FIG. 1 illustrates a cartridge commonly used in a conventional inkjet printing apparatus. The cartridge includes a case 10, a foam 11 packed in the case 10 and retaining ink, an ink supply unit 12 for supplying ink from the foam 11 to a head (not shown), a filter 13 for filtering ink to be ejected from the ink supply unit 12, and an air vent 14 through which an air comes in or goes out of the case 10 to facilitate the ejection of ink from the foam 11.
That is, the foam 11 having micropores is received in the case 10 in a state of being compressed. In this state, when the foam 11 absorbs a predetermined volume of ink, the inside of the case 10 is maintained in a negative pressure state by a capillary phenomenon that occurs in the micropores of the foam 11.
Meanwhile, an ink composition for an inkjet printer consists essentially of a colorant, a solvent, and an additive, and must have a desired jetting performance and a desired adsorptivity or absorptivity after jetting. In this respect, such an ink composition must reach an appropriate level in characteristics such as viscosity, surface tension, image vividness, jetting stability, drying time, blurring, storage stability, coloration, compatibility with a printer head and a recording medium, friction resistance, and water resistance of an image. Antibacterial, deodorizing, and disinfectant properties are also important properties necessary for the ink composition.
In this regard, an ink composition for a conventional inkjet printer includes silver particles to have antibacterial, deodorizing, and disinfectant properties. For example, WO 03/038002, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-49007, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei. 7-331151 disclose an antibacterial ink composition including silver microparticles.
However, the tendency of a recent inkjet printing technology is toward gradual reduction of the amount of ink droplets to obtain high-resolution printing quality. Accordingly, nozzles from which ink droplets are ejected are being reduced in size. In this respect, the silver particles contained in such a conventional ink composition may cause clogging in micro-sized nozzles, thereby lowering print image quality.